COMPANY NEWS; Warner to Buy Theater Stake (original) (raw)
Business|COMPANY NEWS; Warner to Buy Theater Stake
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/20/business/company-news-warner-to-buy-theater-stake.html
Advertisement
COMPANY NEWS
Feb. 20, 1987
Credit...The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
February 20, 1987
,
Section D, Page
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.
About the Archive
This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them.
Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions.
Warner Communcations Inc. agreed yesterday to acquire 50 percent of Gulf and Western's domestic movie theater operations. While the companies refused to disclose the amount of the investment, analysts estimated that Warner would spend about $145 million. Gulf and Western owns Mann
Theaters, which has 360 screens; Festival Enterprises, which has 91 screens, and Trans Lux Theaters, with 21 screens. Both Mann and Festival screens are in California, and Trans Lux theaters are in Connecticut.
Warner is the parent of Warner Brothers, while Gulf and Western is the parent of Paramount Pictures. Over the past year, several movie companies have been buying up stakes in theater companies. For instance, MCA Inc., parent of Universal Pictures, owns 50 percent of Cineplex Odeon. Tri-Star Pictures bought Loews Theaters for more than $300 million.
Warner already has the right to acquire a 50 percent stake in the Cannon Group's European theater operation.
Gulf and Western and Warner will set up a new company to own the theaters. Both Mann and Festival theaters are managed by Ted Mann. Gulf and Western said it would expect the same management to continue to operate the theaters.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section
D
, Page
4
of the National edition
with the headline:
COMPANY NEWS; Warner to Buy Theater Stake. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Advertisement